Tuesday, September 17, 2013

(While not the feature
speaker at this event, I was asked to make a few remarks upon being introduced
during the evening’s opening ceremonies. I hastily scribbled some notes during
dinner and gave it my best shot. This is far from a verbatim transcript of what
was supposed to be a two minute speech, though I’d guess it ran closer to five
minutes. I have added additional info here as necessary to provide context to
the topics of discussion that night.)

Ladies and gentlemen, is this a great time to be an Arizona
Democrat or what? EE-ha! This week, yesterday, Sept. 11th we just
saw AZ change. Right before our very eyes. Our time has just begun!

Let me explain what I am talking about: Yesterday I was in
PHX at the state capitol and got to participate in the official turn-in of our
petition signatures which stopped the GOP’s anti-voter bill 2305 dead in its
tracks. You should have seen it! The state required 86,000 signatures for the
petition drive to halt 2305. 86,000. You
know that’s a BIG number. You know how many we turned in? One Hundred &
Forty-Six Thousand signatures. That’s right 146,000 Arizonans said No to the
GOP, said NO to voter suppression, said NO the status quo and yes to protecting
the rights and improving the lives of all Arizonans. In essence the entire state
of Arizona, en masse, adopted my campaign slogan and told the right they were
wrong.

And folks it was my fellow Democrats leading the way. Overwhelmingly
the Democrats accomplished this task of rounding up the manpower, the hours,
and the sheer will it takes to achieve such a herculean task. But it wasn’t
just Democrats alone. Twenty-four organizations from around the state joined
the Democrats in working to shoot down this potentially dangerous piece of
legislation. If it took effect, it would’ve made it a crime to help elderly
voters w their ballots, A CRIME. It would’ve thrown thousands off of the
permanent early voter lists and it virtually would’ve eliminated third parties
in Arizona: Green Party, the Libertarian Party. There was no way they could’ve
achieved the petition signatures required to even get a candidate on the
ballot. In a way 2305 was an attempt on the part of the GOP to spank the
Libertarians for poaching votes from them. In a couple of races last year
Libertarian candidates garnered a few percent of the vote that usually would’ve
gone to the GOP and they weren’t going to tolerate Libertarian interference w
their elephant parade. But guess who told who, huh?

Speaking of which, I got a picture of myself at the turn-in
event. It was a glorious time. There were cameras and kids and groups of folks
in colorful tee-shirts. The copy paper boxes full of petitions were lined up
chest high, at least twenty foot long. There were easily 200 people there in
the lobby of the Secretary of State’s office. All my favorite Democratic heroes
were there, I got a ton of pictures, but the picture I’m most proud of is of me
getting a hug from Barry Hess, the recurring Libertarian gubernatorial candidate.
Barry Hess giving me a hug? How often have you seen a Libertarian wanting to
thank a Democrat for anything, huh?

It was great! And there were all these
great groups too, all these great spirits of progress celebrating the work they’d
done together: Lucha Arizona, Planned Parenthood, even the American Human
Society, the national organization, they all joined in working together to tell
the GOP they were not going to get to silence Arizonans’ voice at the ballot
box. As Mr. Hess put it, “This bill was the GOP’s effort to cheat to get ahead.
We understand wanting to win, but nobody wants to vote for someone who cheats
to win. Arizonans don’t like cheaters.”

So there.

I tell you Arizonans were so mad at this bill even Ron Gould
signed our petition. The bill was that bad. The successful petition drive
stopped the implementation of the bill which was set to take effect tomorrow.
Yeah, tomorrow! Whew. This successful petition drive will send the whole mess
to a public vote in November of 2014. You know the general voting public isn’t
going to like these cheaters either, once they learn what the GOP is really up
to.

But wait there’s more. Yes, this gets even better. Folks
gave speeches and milled around for about an hour and when it came time to move
the boxes up to the 7th floor check-in counter at SOS elections, we
all joined in filling the elevators. It took 4 elevators to get them all up.
Then, like people always do at those kinds of things, the people wandered
around for a few minutes and all left. BUT, because I was there at the state
capitol for two events that afternoon, a second, later, event, I was still
hanging around the capitol about an hour later when I got to see another crowd
gather with their petitions. That’s right, it was the die-hard Republicans who
still didn’t accept what the rest of us knew for about a week: the GOP petition
drive to repeal Medicaid had dried up and failed. Arizona will get the ACA
after all. All their bombast, al that sanctimonious outrage, they couldn’t stop
it. Turned out the people of Arizona realized they didn’t want to have health
care denied to tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters, they didn’t
want to find themselves sick and suffering and left to the mercy of the GOP.

Even as it was dawning on them, you should have seen their
faces; they were desperately believing. I kid you not, the Dem petition boxes
were chest high and 20 feet long and these guys were huddled around a stack of
papers that wouldn’t fill one copy box. I wandered over and asked politely as I
could, “So, what are you doing?”

“We turning in our petitions to repeal Obama-care!” someone
said a little testily.

I tried to look supportive and asked, “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” someone snapped and they all stopped talking. The
leader of the group wouldn’t even look my way. Finally another nicer person
said, “Since you’re asking, We’re got the numbers, I am sure of it. Everyone is
doubting us but we’ll show them.”

I hooked him and thumbs up and wandered off. I didn’t want
to be rude but you just can’t talk sense to some of those guys.

My event wasn’t for
another hour or so, so I hung around the capitol complex, saw some sights. Beautiful
place, our state capitol. Too bad the GOP sold it. I just hung out, played my
guitar and walked around. You know that’s why I have that pink guitar case of
mine, so I can hang out, play guitar and walk around. I’ve stood on many a corner
some place in Arizona, just saying. Anyway, about an hour later I wandered back
over to their little group while I was playing, “This Land is Your Land.” Sure,
it was just a coincidence.

There were now about a dozen of them gathered. They had a 2nd
box by this point, but you couldn’t see anything in it. I read in the paper
this morning that they say they were only about 5000 signatures short. 5000?
There must have been a zero missing there. If they had 80,000 signatures, they
didn’t have them at the state capitol that day.

They did have some folks along the sidewalks at the capitol,
however, with clipboards asking the tourists, “Don’t you want to Repeal
Obama-Care?” But it was hot, you know? Who want to stop and sign stuff. Besides
like I say it turned out Arizonans did not want to be left to get sick and die
to support Republican hubris after all, imagine that. At least, I didn’t see
any tourists stop. I just kept on walking around the courtyard there at the
state capitol, playing and singing, “This Land Is Your Land” and watching their
sad little troupe slowly come to realize their day was done. And when I caught
the eyes of the leader, he looked so lost.

And that’s the story. I wish I could’ve sorrier for them,
because I know they had tried so hard, but I couldn’t do it. I loved it. These
were the folks ruining the country and we’d stopped ‘em. Twice in one day! I
was so happy for our state to know that the people of Arizona had rejected
these guys. I was so glad the people of Arizona realized they didn’t want to
have health care denied to tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters,
they didn’t want to find themselves sick and suffering and left to the mercy of
the GOP. See? Once again Arizona told the Right They’re Wrong.

That’s what I’m saying. This is our message. And this is our
time to tell it. This is our time for the Democrats

to shine. We have the
momentum right now. NOW is the time to seize the day. We can use our voices
catch the public’s ear now, we can change the way they see Arizona now. Thank
you for being the change we need to see.

About Me

We are occupying the left coast of Arizona, disorganizing people from Yuma to Utah and the Colorado River to Cottonwood! This District was built for an Extremist Republican like the three talking heads that are running, Gould, Gosar, and Babeu. Please help us change the discussion in AZ CD 4. We need your support! Mikel Weisser is a social studies teacher, poet, and activist with progressive vision and energy.